-SlowSilverTIPJason-

Well, after seeing some posts that suggested repairing the LCD display in the instrument cluster may be as easy as cleaning up some shoddy soldering, I decided to take it apart as this is what I've been looking at for a couple thousand miles, now at 51K FWIW.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96506/cluster2.jpg">

So I hopped on in, and found a cute little CPU Die looking thing right on the ribbon cable going from the mainboard to the LCD. All solder joints look OK, and there don't appear to be any other serviceable parts in the assembly.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96506/cluster1.jpg">

Also of interest is the backlighting for the LCD, looks like an EL piece but I didn't dig too deep, there may be some LED's behind there. Cool way to get white text like the B6&amp;7s though, replace the SMC LED's w/ white ones.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96506/cluster3.jpg">

Also, I'm sad to report that I did my winter service on the bike. Looks like she may be sitting right here til next season. Bled the brakes and clutch, fogged her and changed the oil. This is my depressing time of year.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96506/duc1.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96506/duc2.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96506/duc3.jpg">

Eric 2.7

Did the same thing. I'm pretty handy with small electronics but couldn't see an easy fix here.

Dr. Jekyll

I nomiate the forum nerd... i mean electrical engineer wizz... BoneStock to investigate this :-)

'01 S4 Kid

Isn't our screen LED and the B6/7 LCD?

-SlowSilverTIPJason-

They're both backlit LCD. Newer cars are white letters though.

-SlowSilverTIPJason-

Yeah its a shame to replace the whole cluster, We gotta find that LCD somewhere w/ the ribbon.

Mike2kS4

I disassembled my friends failed unit and couldn't find any replaceable components

mchang

and the same conclusion, unfortunately.

Dr. Jekyll

But it was weird, most of the time it would hardly be readable but then on some nights (always night, with headlights on, and cool but a little humid out) it would work 100% perfect, with no missing lines. I found that very odd.

rojodosformula::red

I didn't see that on mine. When I pressed the lines where they curved over the bracket the dimmed out line reappeared. Fortunatly for me but unfortunate for the board, Audi will be replacing mine so I won't be able to screw with it and see if I can fix it.